Last week we began to look at John’s description of the new Jerusalem. Without question, the new Jerusalem is the largest and most glorious city ever made.

But the new Jerusalem is, of course, not a literal city. Or at least its description is not to be interpreted literally. Rather, John gives us a picture of the church — the church as it now is in principle and as it will be in glory by the grace of God.

The Wall, the Foundations and the Gates

We’ll continue with verse 18, which picks up where we left off, viz., in the middle of John’s description of the wall, the foundations and the gates of the new Jerusalem. Here we discover the material out of which the wall and the city are made.

The wall is jasper, which corresponded to the glory of God in verse 11. This means that the glory of God and God himself guards and protects his people.

The city itself is made of the finest pure gold. We need to keep in mind just how much gold this would be. If the twelve thousand furlongs of verse 16 are the measurement of the city’s perimeter, then each of the city’s sides measure 345 miles wide by 345 miles high. But if the twelve thousand furlongs is the measurement of each side, then the city’s sides would be fourteen hundred miles wide by fourteen hundred miles high. In either case, we’re talking about more gold than any of us can imagine. It’ so much gold, in fact, that it would make the Yosemite Valley with its massive granite walls that tower four thousand feet above ground level look like a speck of dust.

But, again, it’s not the size that matters. The number twelve thousand is the number of God’s people (twelve) multiplied by an ideal number (one thousand). The new Jerusalem is an ideal city that represents an ideal church. Its jasper walls and pure gold (a gold so thoroughly refined that it’s actually transparent) emphasize the absolute purity and colossal value of God’s people. We see just how much God values his people by the fact that he sent his only begotten Son into the world to die in our place, and by the death of his Son we have been made perfectly pure in his sight.

So, if you’re ever tempted to think that God cannot possibly love you or that you mean nothing to him, let this passage rebuke that evil thought!

Further, as God’s people we should seek to reflect the gold of the gospel in our lives. In Revelation 3:18, Christ counseled the church of Laodicea to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich. And Peter wrote, That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ (I Pet. 1:7).

The foundations of the wall, according to verses 19 and 20, are decorated with twelve precious stones. Earlier John said that there were twelve foundations that support the wall of the city. These foundations not only correspond to the twelve apostles but actually bear their names (v. 14), since the apostles are artisans who, by their preaching of the gospel, crafted the walls.

In the Old Testament, the high priest wore a vest on which there were also twelve stones (Exod. 28:15–20). His twelve stones represented the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, in whose behalf he ministered before God. The twelve stones that adorn the foundations of the new Jerusalem are not the same gems found on the priest’s vest, though they serve a similar purpose. They speak of the church’s glory (cf. Isa. 54:11–12).

The twelve gates of the new Jerusalem are pearls. People often refer to them as “the pearly gates.” But it’s not just that the gates are “pearly,” i.e., made of pearl. Rather, each gate is a single pearl, which means that the pearls must be incredibly large. Just as the city is thousands of times bigger than an ordinary city, so its gates are thousands of times larger than common pearls. In fact, one commentator wrote, “You can only wonder what the oyster looked like!”[1] But remember that the pearls are also symbolic.

The pearls that make up the twelve gates of the city are the only gems mentioned in our text that are produced organically. A piece of debris or a parasite irritates the soft tissues of an oyster, causing the oyster to wrap the irritant in layers of calcium carbonate to reduce the irritation. In the process, it turns a problem into an article of great value and beauty. In our text pearls serve as the gates of the city, reminding us, as the apostle Paul once said, that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22).

The streets that lead into the city are made of the pure gold. They represent the path or the way of life for God’s people, which also must be pure. Proverbs 4:18 says, But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The prophet Isaiah spoke often of this highway. It was he who predicted, for example, that John the Baptist would prepare in the desert a highway for our God (Isa. 40:3). And what is this highway? Earlier he wrote, And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein …And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away (Isa. 35:8, 10).

The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb

Next John goes on to identify two things that cannot be found in the new Jerusalem. Verse 22 says that it has no temple, and verse 23 says that it lacks the illumination of heavenly bodies, particularly the sun and the moon.

In one sense, the absence of a temple is somewhat surprising. The last nine chapters of Ezekiel give an extensive description of the temple and its ministry. But the temple that he described does not fit any known temple. It’s not Solomon’s temple or Zerubbabel’s or the enlargement of the temple made by Herod the Great. Because of this Dispensationalists believe that Ezekiel’s temple will be built sometime in the future and the complete sacrificial system will be restored. Yet, John says that there will be no temple in the new Jerusalem. So, what becomes of Ezekiel’s prophecy?

In spite of the fact that new covenant worship does not center around an earthly temple, the New Testament has a lot to say about a new covenant temple.

For example, when Jesus cast the moneychangers out of the temple in the second chapter of John, the Jews asked for a sign that shows his authority to enforce God’s law. He said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (John 2:19). Of course, the temple he meant was not the Jewish temple. Rather, he spake of the temple of his body (John 2:21) — a temple that would be crucified and yet rise again on the third day.

In other passages, the temple of God is applied to the metaphorical body of Christ, viz., the church. Paul wrote, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (I Cor. 3:16); and, Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s (I Cor. 6:19–20); and again, What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (II Cor. 6:16).

And ultimately, the new covenant is temple is heaven itself, where the triune God will forever dwell with his people. Hebrews 9:11–12 says, But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

In other words, the temple that Ezekiel described was the church of Jesus Christ. But then we might wonder why he gave so many details about the temples gates and courts, singers and sanctuary, priests and feasts. Wouldn’t such details be superfluous if the temple is just a metaphor? Well, not necessarily. In this case, the details accentuate the perfection, beauty and holiness of God’s people.

Now, when we put it this way, the absence of the temple in the new Jerusalem is not surprising at all. Why? Because the entire city is a temple. There is no one place holier than any other.

Yet, the point of our text is not that God’s people are the temple, but that the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple. Only that worship and service are acceptable to God that recognize the sovereign reign of the triune God and the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. The presence of God among his people sanctifies the entire edifice.

With the glory of God to lighten the city, the new Jerusalem also had no need of a sun or a moon. According to verse 11, the glory of God lighted the city, and its light was like a perfectly clear jasper stone.

At this point, three other passages of Scripture come immediately to mind. The first is Genesis 1:3, which says that the only thing that God made on the first day of creation was light. Since the heavenly luminaries (the sun, moon and stars) were not made until the fourth day, this light must have been something else. The next two passages, John 1:4–5 and II Corinthians 4:6, comment on this event. John, speaking of the creation week and Christ’s part in it, wrote, In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. In other words, the light of creation had an immediate victory because it instantly dispelled darkness, and that light parallels the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the lives of men. And Paul, in the passage from II Corinthians, compares the light of the first day of creation to the gospel shining in the hearts of God’s people. He wrote, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It’s possible, then, that the light in Genesis 1:3, though real light, also served as an initial indication of God’s purpose to redeem a church unto himself through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is as if God announced at the very beginning of creation that Jesus Christ gives meaning and purpose to creation. This is further suggested in the fact that Scripture calls Jesus the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8; cf. I Pet. 1:19–20. Other texts that speak to this include Eph. 1:4 and Titus 1:2).

Interestingly, the Jewish Midrash also connects Genesis 1:3 to the promise of a Messiah. In fact, it specifically refers to Isaiah 60:1, which says, Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.[2] But we can actually can go further than this, since the entire section in Revelation 21 that deals with the light of the new Jerusalem (vv. 23–27) comes from the same chapter of Isaiah. Although the items are in a different order, the statements are strikingly similar. Note the following:

The light of which Isaiah spoke dawned with the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fourth chapter of Matthew observes that Jesus began his ministry by fulfilling another prophecy of Isaiah that speaks about the dawning of a great light. Here’s what he wrote: And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up (Matt. 4:13–16; cf. Isa. 9:1–2).

The light, both in Isaiah and Revelation 21, is the light of Jesus Christ. We might call it the radiance of the gospel, the brightness of the new covenant or the glory of gentile inclusion. Whatever we call it, this light has already begun to shine. It’s been shining brightly for more than two thousand years. And it will continue to shine, like the path of the just, brighter and brighter unto the perfect day (Prov. 4:8).

The last verse of our text emphasizes again the absolute righteousness and perfect holiness that characterizes the body of Christ. It admits no one whose life is enslaved to sin. As Paul wrote, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God (I Cor. 6:9–10). Only those whose names appear in the Lamb’s book of life participate in the life of this glorious city. Paul continued: But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God (I Cor. 6:11).

Praise God for his great mercy! The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all our sins, and by the power of his Spirit he prepares us for life in the new Jerusalem!

Now, you might wonder when you will be allowed to pass through the gates of pearl and walk the streets of gold in the New Jerusalem. Will it be when you die? Do you have to wait for the resurrection and final judgment?

Well, the Bible tells us. The fact is that you’re in the new Jerusalem now if you believe in Jesus Christ. Galatians 4 says that we are at this moment children of the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all (v. 26). But Hebrews 12:22–24 is even more to the point. It says, But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

The new Jerusalem is where all the blessings of salvation are found. If you have those blessings, then you have already entered the holy city. Amen.

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[1] Ralph E. Bass, Jr., Back to the Future: a Study in the Book of Revelation, in loc.

[2] Tom Huckel, The Rabbinic Messiah (Philadelphia: Hananeel House, 1998), in loc.